


open your eyes, watching afar

by eynn



Series: had a dream, you and me in the war of the end times [3]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Nobody Dies, Time Travel Fix-It, and ofc anakin learned it, the clones developed their own language fight me, the council will forever dread getting a voicemail from anakin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:40:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23890192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eynn/pseuds/eynn
Summary: Their comms go off in the middle of a Council meeting. The report from Skywalker and Kenobi after taking Christophsis is horribly late, and they’ve heard nothing from them.Mace looks around after announcing who the comm is from, and puts it up so that everyone can see it when they nod. The blue holo of Skywalker flickers into focus in the middle of the room.Something about him seems off. Mace can’t tell what it is, but something about the tense figure with arms crossed, staring blankly at the holorecorder, is different. It sets off alarm bells in his head.
Relationships: (background), Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: had a dream, you and me in the war of the end times [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1713040
Comments: 49
Kudos: 1360





	open your eyes, watching afar

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Открой глаза, увидь, наконец!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29334468) by [Averin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Averin/pseuds/Averin)



Their comms go off in the middle of a Council meeting. The report from Skywalker and Kenobi after taking Christophsis is horribly late, and they’ve heard nothing from them.

Mace looks around after announcing who the comm is from, and puts it up so that everyone can see it when they nod. The blue holo of Skywalker flickers into focus in the middle of the room.

Something about him seems off. Mace can’t tell what it is, but something about the tense figure with arms crossed, staring blankly at the holorecorder, is different. It sets off alarm bells in his head.

Skywalker’s clothes are strange; they’re somehow sharper and stiffer than he expects, yet he can’t quite pin down what has changed about them. His face is almost gaunt, the look of a world-weary adult rather than the reckless teenager who had left the Temple to lead his men into battle. His eyes stand out against the taut lines of his pale skin, deep shadows under them.

Then he opens his mouth and – what?

They let the recording play for a few seconds and then Mace hits pause.

“Does anyone actually understand that?” Kit says, the first to speak up.

“I recognize some of the words,” Agen says slowly. “I believe that they’re Mando’a, or a derivative of it.”

“Some of that is definitely trooper slang,” Shaak says, her hologram flickering with the distance. “And some of it sounds like Kaminoan. But Agen is right, I think the grammar is Mando’a.”

“Basic there is as well,” Yoda comments, his ears perked, clearly thinking hard. “But understand it, I do not.”

“I think that’s he’s using the language of our men,” Plo says. His tusks flex in agitation. “But they don’t use it around us, and it isn’t nearly as complex as that, from the times I’ve heard it used. Where can he have picked it up so quickly?”

Mace pinches the bridge of his nose. “The clones have their own language?” It’s the first he’s heard of it.

Shaak and Plo nod in eerie synchronization. “It is more of a patois than whatever Skywalker is using, but it sounds very similar,” she adds. “I can see it developing into that in a few years’ time and with a few more batches’ input.”

Depa has been frowning at the holo, but she looks up to say, “Would you play it again? Perhaps slow it down.”

Mace plays back the ten or so seconds of Skywalker speaking that they’ve already heard at half-speed and watches his former padawan’s face as her eyes widen.

“I’m not sure at all, but I think he’s telling us that he is done with our playtime? Or he might mean that he’s lost most of his men? Neither of those really make sense, but I think that’s what he’s saying.”

“Ask one of our officers to translate, we could,” Yoda says, and everyone nods in relief.

Depa calls her Commander, who is already at the Temple, and he arrives ten minutes later, stepping into the Council Room with only a hint of nervousness and saluting them.

“Yes, Generals?”

“Commander Grey, could you please listen to this and tell us if you understand it?” Mace asks, and once again plays the holo.

Grey’s expression goes from professionally blank to shocked to horrified to confused back to blank within a second. His hands tighten on his helmet. “Yes, General. I can understand it.”

“What is he saying?”

“He – uh. Could I hear more of it? It’s paused in the middle of a sentence.”

Mace lets it play a little longer, watching both Skywalker’s expressive, angry face in the recording and Grey, who is getting paler and paler. After about a minute, Grey makes a sharp gesture and almost drops his helmet. Mace hits pause.

Depa gets up from her chair. “Grey, are you all right?”

“I’m – I’m fine, General. I think – I think – How long is the recording?”

Mace looks at that for the first time and winces. “Seven minutes.” He’s pretty sure that all seven minutes are of Skywalker yelling gibberish at the top of his lungs.

“If I could get a copy, I can have some subtitles made right away.” His voice is trembling.

“Commander, you really don’t look good,” Depa insists, but her voice is drowned out by Ki-Adi.

“Why can’t you just tell us what he’s saying?”

“I – I don’t know if I heard it right –” Grey looks down at his own hands. They’re shaking.

“Has something bad happened? Did the Separatists attack after the battle was won?”

“No. He’s saying – he calls us –”

“If my Commander says he can have it translated for us quickly, he can!” Depa insists loudly, leaning over to send a copy of the holo to him. “Go on, Commander. We do need to know what it says, but take the time you need to make it accurate. And don’t spread it around, this is a confidential recording for now.”

Mace watches with slowly growing dread as Commander Grey salutes again, but distractedly, and almost stumbles on his way out.

What has Skywalker done now?

~

It’s a nerve-racking four hours before Commander Grey comms Depa to tell her that the translation is finished, and they all meet in the Council room as fast as they can.

Mace has a bad feeling about this.

Grey comes in and hands Depa the datachip with the newly subtitled holo on it. Mace studies him as he hurries out again, not making eye contact with any of them, and wonders why he looks like he’s been crying.

Depa starts playing the holo, and when Skywalker begins to shout, words pop up.

_“I quit. I played your games, masters. I played them and suffered for them. We all lost. I fuckin’ quit.”_

Mace wants to put his hand over his face, but he can’t look away. Why is Skywalker using the past tense? What does he mean by saying ‘we all lost’? Who is he talking about?

_“And now you want to put me in command of a kriffing child slave army and expect me to be fine? Not happening.”_

They should have remembered Skywalker’s past before appointing him to be a general. But the clones aren’t slaves, surely . . . The ones who survive will get an honorable discharge from the army and a pension. Won’t they?

Mace feels a sudden need to go back and go through some of those Senate records very, very closely.

 _“Twelve!”_ The grainy blue image of Skywalker screams, and it’s like a slap in the face. The clones age faster than normal people. They’re not children. They can’t be children. Not really. Because that would mean . . .

_“Use all the talent and tech you have stuffed in the Temple to write a good virus that’d reprogram and shut down all those droids we’re fighting.”_

Depa hits the pause and looks around. “Just a question. Why haven’t we tried looking into that? We have the Force. If we can retake planets and successfully free prisoners of war, why can’t we reach a command center and plant a virus into the droids?”

Everyone shifts uneasily.

“I suppose we hadn’t thought of it,” Plo says. “But it is a very good idea to look into.” He makes a note on his datapad.

Yoda nods. “Propose this, I shall. A way to end the war quicker it may be.”

“Can I start it again?” At the collective nod, Depa hits play.

Mace’s breath catches in his throat at Skywalker’s next words.

They died? They _all_ died? How does he know this? How is this possible?

But Skywalker looks so different, ragged and exhausted and at the end of his patience in a way he’s never seen before. There’s no arrogance or impulsiveness coming off of him, just pain and fury and remorse and a grief so deep that it physically hurts where the lingering touch of it from the recording slams in waves into his shields.

The clones have slave chips? That was _not_ in the contract the Kaminoans gave Obi-Wan when he discovered them. That was something they expressly ordered the clones not to have.

 _“I lived it, went insane, and now I’m back in time and telling all of you to fuck off and leave me and my men alone. Got it? I’ve been crazy and come out the other side. No help from you, by the way,”_ Skywalker says, not shouting anymore, just tired and rough. Tears are starting to slide down his face, but he doesn’t seem to have noticed.

Depa pauses it again. Mace looks over at her to see that her face is white and her hands are shaking.

“That’s why Grey was so upset,” she says blankly. “They’re slaves. They didn’t know. Who has the controls for their chips? What are they going to do to them?”

“Know this, I did not,” Yoda says angrily. “Intolerable this is. Too dangerous for us and not right it is. Bad enough that they were commissioned, worse it is for them to be hostages.”

“Has no one noticed that Knight Skywalker claims to have come back through time?” Ki-Adi says.

“I think he’s telling the truth,” Mace manages to choke out. Strange. He can think the words, but it’s almost impossible to physically say them. It feels like someone has their fingers around his throat. “Look at him. He’s aged.”

Everyone considers the Skywalker in the holo for a moment. There is a slow cascade of nods.

“Go on, Depa,” Agen says quietly. “We need to know more.”

 _“Good luck getting Ahsoka away from me now, you callous bastards,”_ Skywalker says, glaring, unconsciously shifting his weight into a defensive stance and that tells Mace a lot more about how he feels than his words do. _“What, was she the problem child you wanted gone without actually having her blood on your hands? Send her into a literal warzone to be taken care of by a notorious loose cannon who’s too young to be knighted without being at war and never wanted her?”_

Plo makes a choking sound and Depa pauses it again.

“You sent her to Skywalker?” he snaps, glaring at Yoda, whose eyes are round and ears are nearly flat against his head.

“A good idea at the time, it seemed,” he says, sounding old and broken. “Know what I was thinking now I do not. Right he is. Callous we have become.”

Silence falls over the Council chamber.

“I thought Obi-Wan was taking on the new padawan,” Shaak says quietly, static hissing when she speaks.

“Know what I was thinking I cannot remember,” Yoda repeats. “Right Skywalker is. Far too young for a padawan’s life to depend on him he is, and too young to be taken away from his Master he was. Strong in the Force he is but support he still needs.”

_“And by the end they were sending out cadets who were seven, eight. They don’t even have a chance to grow out of their baby teeth!”_

Mace doesn’t hear the next few words. His pulse is roaring in his ears and for a horrible moment he thinks he might be sick.

_“Do you even notice when they die? Do you mourn for them?”_

He doesn’t. He hasn’t.

He has some serious meditation to do after this. This is wrong in so many ways and on so many levels.

Anakin stop shouting. His eyes narrow and he points aggressively at the camera, and when he speaks, his voice is a growl. A shiver runs through Mace.

_“You. Pong Krell.”_

That bad feeling is getting worse. Mace frantically tries to remember what he knows about Knight Krell.

_“You are not going to touch another trooper because you get off on pain and blood and killing. See how you like dying pointlessly, slow and scared. If you want to live a little longer, you better start running. It won’t save you, but it’ll make the chase more fun. Togruta are predators, you know, and Ahsoka taught me just as much as I taught her.”_

Depa pauses the holo yet again. “Do we – Do we have proof of this accusation? Any at all?” she asks.

Ki-Adi is frantically flipping through screens on his datapad. “His battalion has only been on two missions so far, both have been successful, there is a –” He stops and looks astonished. “A casualty rate of seventy-five percent each time.”

“What the kriff,” someone says heatedly, and Mace realizes that it was him.

“Look into this immediately we must,” says Yoda. “After this holo done is.”

Skywalker rubs his hand across his eyes and makes a choking noise that sounds a lot like a sob. _“And don’t think I don’t know about all the shit you all pulled on Obi-Wan, either. Forcing him to take on my training right after his fucking dad died in front of him and never giving him a speck of help or support? That was a dick move, all of you. Threatening to take me away if he didn’t do exactly what you said, making him feel guilty that he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his promise to Qui-Gon when he was dying?”_

“That was not what happened,” Mace says. He can’t help himself. “I don’t think it was. Did we come across like that to him?”

He meets Yoda’s eyes and both of them look equally horrified.

_“You know what the first thing that comes up on the holonet is when you search ‘person with no empathy’ is? Sociopaths! You’re a bunch of sociopaths with way too much power and a bunch of children to prey on. Fuckers. See if I don’t figure out how to rescue all those kids as soon as I can.”_

Mace has a headache. They don’t prey on the Force-sensitive children they take in. Some of them would be killed by their parents if the Jedi didn’t take them. It’s necessary that they don’t have strong memories of their parents, if all they do is cause pain. The Jedi are kind to them and treat them like family.

Don’t they?

_“That’s how I got fucking gaslight and brainwashed into becoming his slave, chipped and collared and all the rest, and used to kill you all just like my brothers were! Yeah, he’s the Force-damned Sith Lord you’re all worried about—”_

There’s an instant uproar, both of sound and in the Force. Everyone is on their feet, shouting at the recording.

“Quiet!” Agen bellows, and they all fall silent. “Let’s see if he gives us any evidence before we lose our heads. None of this has actually happened yet, after all.”

 _“—but happily pretending doesn’t exist! You want proof? Run a mission without giving him all the details for once and see how much easier it goes and how many lives you don’t lose!”_ Skywalker rants, and Mace feels curiously lightheaded. It’s true. The Separatists always seem to be one step ahead of them, no matter how confidential they try to keep their battle plans. And the Chancellor knows everything. Of course he does. It’s his job.

Skywalker sighs, puts his hands on his hips, as he admits to wanting to yell at them before. _“Look at all the fucks I don’t give. Look at them, masters. This is how much I give a shit about the Jedi Code. It doesn’t work! Did it ever work? We’re reduced to the Chancellor’s attack dogs and kicked to the curb and killed as soon as we dare show our teeth to him,”_ he says, snorting bitterly.

“Pause it, please,” Kit says, and the holo freezes. “He has a point. We go where the Chancellor sends us. You can’t tell me that if we had the freedom to plan this war, we’d be making the same decisions he does.”

A murmur of agreement runs around the room.

“He makes so many risky moves,” Luminara mutters, speaking up for the first time. “I haven’t agreed with a single one since this started. And some of them have backfired horribly.”

“No Jedi have died because of him,” Agen argues.

“But plenty of our men have,” Kit snaps back. “That’s my point.”

_“Though it’s pretty funny that he kills you, Master Windu, by throwing you out the window of his office.”_

The headache builds and shatters and he feels it, pain everywhere and he’s falling, he can’t catch himself because his hands are gone and then he hits something hard and everything goes out.

The holo is still going when he drags himself out of the vision.

In that at least, Skywalker is speaking truth.

 _“—want to wrap her in a blanket and stick her in the safest place I can find. So is Obi-Wan and my wife’s. Yeah, my wife. We have twins, too. Fuck off,” i_ s the next thing he sees, and he can’t even summon the energy to be shocked.

“So Obi-Wan is definitely with him,” someone says, but the holo doesn’t pause.

_“You were always decent to Ahsoka and Obi-Wan and to me, even though you had to hide it from everyone else. Aaand now I’ve outed you. Sorry. If you need me, I’ll find you. I’ll always find those of you who need me. I swear.”_

Everyone turns to look at Plo, who shrugs. “I was just being kind,” he says. “Aren’t we all supposed to be kind? Hasn’t anyone else been kind to them?”

No one will meet his eyes.

_“See what the people think of your precious Hero with No Fear spilling all your nasty little secrets.”_

“The what,” Luminara says.

“I only heard of that nickname for him this morning on the holonet, resulting from a clip of him in action on Christophsis,” Shaak says, looking disturbed. “There no way he could have known it before recording this. It could be more proof that Knight Skywalker has in fact come back in time.”

“We can’t let this get to the holonet. The accusation that Chancellor Palpatine is a Sith alone could ruin the Republic,” Ki-Adi says.

 _“And Palpatine? When you see this and try to initiate Order Sixty-Six? Don’t even try it. Don’t you dare touch what is mine. You taught me the Rule of Two. I’m going to teach you how it feels to die by your apprentice’s hand. As slowly and painfully as I can manage. And that story about Darth Plagueis was a total lie, and really boring as well.”_ Skywalker’s grin puts them all on edge. He looks half-mad.

“Who’s Darth Plagueis?” someone asks.

 _“Separatist leaders? I know who you are. I know where you live. I know what you prize, and I know how to destroy it. Stand down and end this dumbass war, or I’ll end it for you. That means you, Dooku. Don’t think you’re anything less than a very, very disposable pawn to Sidious.”_ Skywalker’s very obvious fake cough of ‘Palpatine’ makes them all shift uneasily again. He seems totally convinced of the truth of his claim. _“I slaughtered all of you in five minutes last time this war ended. It might take me ten this time. Skywalker out.”_

“Okay. First priority,” Depa says after the holo blinks out. “What the Sith hells does this Order Sixty-Six do?”

“I wrote a list of our priorities,” Plo says. “We have to investigate the slave chips in our men, look into writing a virus to stop the droid armies, investigate the accusation of the Chancellor being the Sith Lord, investigate the matter of Knight Krell, and examine the way we treat our younglings.”

“I think that the matter of the younglings can be looked into much later –” Depa begins, but Plo cuts her off.

“No. Clearly it is a long-standing and deep problem that is contributing to our weakness today. We are sending children to battlefields because we are afraid that we will die off faster than we can train new knights. That is not the way to accomplish this!”

Yoda thumps his stick on the floor and all their heads turn to him. “True that is but a problem we can solve quickly it is not. Look into it soon we shall but not before this matter of the chips.”

“I’ll head that up,” Depa offers. “My men are all here and have a week’s leave. I can have some of them investigated. At least he said that the chips are in their heads, that should save us some time looking for them.”

“Good.” Yoda nods. “Into my hands, the Chancellor and this Order Sixty-Six I will take. If assisted I could be by Master Fisto and Master Kolar, most grateful I would be.”

“I’ll look into the accusations against Knight Krell,” Mace says heavily. He will take no joy in it, but it can’t be ignored. A casualty rate of three-quarters of his men on each campaign is far, far too high.

“Who’s going to look for Skywalker and Kenobi?” Shaak asks. “They’ve taken their men with them, haven’t they?”

Mace pinches the bridge of his nose. Great. Not only have two of their most capable generals, one of whom is a Council member, run off, but they’ve taken about two thousand clones and three star destroyers with them. Not to mention the gunships and transports.

The Senate is going to be livid.

“You realize that the Senate is probably going to order them captured and put on trial for treason, or at least desertion?” he asks the room at large.

“But if Skywalker’s accusations against the Chancellor are true,” Luminara says slowly, her hologram crackling, “won’t he just be using that as a cover to get rid of those who know about him? To weaken us, if that is what he truly is trying to do?”

“He made a lot of valid points,” Kit agrees. “I don’t like saying it, but he is right about some of the ways he claims we have treated him and others. We have been so focused on what the Senate is ordering us to do that we’ve neglected our own.”

**Author's Note:**

> anakin's wrong about rex's age, by the way. to be fair, he has just traveled back from the end of the clone wars to the beginning of them and hasn't quite realized what that means for their interpersonal relationships. rex is actually ten, not twelve. anakin's probably going to have hysterics when he realizes and then attempt to build him armor out of bubble wrap.


End file.
